As I finish the last crumbs of the achappam, I know it will be some time before I get to taste the same kind of rose cookies, aka achappam, again. For these were brought from the iconic Mammi Chedathy’s outlet at Puthenangadi in Kottayam.
Kerala has a wealth of short bites, savouries and sweets, colloquially called naalumani palahaaram (4pm snacks). Mammi Chedathy’s Food Products, a quiet outlet tucked away in a lane in Kottayam town, has been functioning from the same place since it opened in 1953. Filled with packets of churuttu, kuzhalappam, achappam, cheeppappam, vettu cake, madakasa, avalose podi, neyyappam, vattayappam, aval velayichathu and more, fresh batches of eats, some unique to Central Travancore, keep arriving from the kitchen adjacent to the outlet. Women are busy packing them in plastic covers.
As I request to taste a madakasa, a layered deep-fried snack that is dipped in sugar syrup, one of the women hands one to me with a smile. Even as it goes crunch with every bite, the sugar quotient is just so right!
Over the years, this place has become synonymous with ethnic eats that are essential for functions associated with marriage, pregnancy, housewarming and so on.
Kathrina Joseph who runs the place with her daughter-in-law, Jyothi Sibi, says the outlet owes its success to the recipes handed down to her by her mother-in-law, Mariam Anthony.
“She was known as Mammi Chedathy. No one would recognise the name if you were to ask for Mariam,” chuckles the sprightly 72-year-old.
Mammi’s kuzhalappam and churuttu had made a name for herself. Initially, she used to make it for relatives and friends. But soon the flavour of the snacks brought in more customers.
Kathrina, aka Thankamma, came as a bride to Kottayam when she was 18 and began helping her mother-in-law. Coming from a farming family in the Idukki district, the young bride learnt all the recipes and cooking methods from Mammi.
Churuttu was their top seller. The samosa-like sweet with a crunchy filling of powdered rice flour, coconut and sugar is flavoured with a dash of cumin seeds, sesame seeds, cardamom and dried ginger.
“The covering, called mandaka, is made with wheat flour dusted with rice flour. The dough is rolled out into rounds and lightly toasted on a tawa. Then the rounds are rolled into cones and filled with the stuffing and sealed with a lemon-juice sugar solution,” explains the septugenarian.
“It was hard work. Remember, there were no machines in those days. We didn’t have employees to help us with the cooking. I was up before the sun. Rice had to be soaked and hand pounded, sieved and pounded again, coconut had to scraped and everything cooked on firewood stoves,” she says.
Depending on orders, the women would be up till midnight or the wee hours of the day and begin work after two to three hours of sleep. “During the monsoon, imagine how difficult it was for Amma to get the damp firewood to burn. It was not easy for her, what with three daughters and a son to look after too,” quips Jyothi.
She asserts that what is special about Mammi Chedathy’s is that they still follow the same proportions and source the best ingredients.
“These days, many food materials contain harmful chemicals in the form of additives and colours. But we insist on using only the best of ingredients. That is why we have a loyal customer base to this day,” she adds.
Appreciating Thankamma’s role in building up the reputation of their outlet, Jyothi says that even today, the veteran culinary expert supervises the kitchen and helps in the cooking.
“Now, we have employees, stoves in different sizes and many of the processes have been mechanised. Work is certainly easier for me,” says Jyothi.
Their insistence on fresh food is one of the reasons why they don’t have any branches. At present, the variety of eats includes tapioca wafers, mixture, pakkavada, avalose unda and so on.
“Our customers know what to expect when they come to our outlet. We do not courier our eats but we have loyal customers from all over the world who come to Kottayam to buy our food products, pickles and preserves,” says Jyothi.
